Bristleback’s Inn is the sort of place one would expect to find in a remote settlement. A cracked and peeling wooden sign creaks from its iron bracket by the door, showing a picture of a wild boar in badly-faded paint. It is an old building, small for an inn, and is not in the best of repair.

People

Odo Bristleback, the innkeeper, owns and operates the entire settlement of Zelkor’s Ferry, a business that has been in his family for generations. He hires the guards for the fort, and collects rent from the smith, the merchants, and the necromancer.

Amelia Odo’s wife

Ysbeland Tallie serving wench

Gumbel the Cook serving wench

Prices
Room and board costs 1 gp per night, with an extra silver piece charged for stabling a horse or mule.

B. The Stable

The stable is a part of the inn; anyone wishing to keep horses here can do so by talking to Odo Bristleback, the innkeeper.

From time to time Odo has a horse or a mule for sale, although these are far from thoroughbred quality. If his stock is bought out, it takes at least a week before any more animals are available.

C. Blacksmith

People

Big Morganis a blacksmith who rents this building from Odo and makes his living by repairing wagons, shoeing horses, and producing simple iron tools for the wayfarers who stop at the inn.

Deslena, Morgan’s wife makes the sturdy pottery dishes used in the area as well as bottles and jugs in various sizes that she sells at the Trading Post. Her kiln is built into the other side of the forge.

D. Barracks

This building is the residence for Zelkor's Ferry guards, whom he has hand-picked over several years by Odo. They are led by Captain Skorma, and consist of traveling mercenaries and adventurers who were willing to stay. They are a loyal and experienced group of veterans.

E. Rasmus Pye’s Trading Post

People

Rasmus Pye runs the trading post and he buys, sells, and barters anything that comes his way down the river, up the trail, or out of the dungeon. The only thing he doesn’t sell is horses, since his landlord owns the stables. Rasmus is a wizard of minor abilities, and his ability to cast sleep spells was a nasty surprise for the last group of kobolds that attempted to storm the walls.

Meregan, Pye's wife, assits him and also sews and does some light leatherwork. Common clothing items available at the trading post may have been made by her, and she will make custom items at 20% above the usual cost.

Verestin is their twelve-year-old son

Prices
Most normal supplies, even including armor, can be purchased here at normal prices.

F. The Necromancer

People

Ulman Dark is a necromancer with certain strange abilities derived from his studies in black magic, astrology, and necromancy. Having been exiled from a number of civilized communities, he has chosen to live in the remote settlement of Zelkor’s Ferry, where his studies are tolerated—within limits—since he has significant abilities as a healer, no matter how questionable the source of these abilities might be.

Ulman is able to remove the effects of poison, and even has a certain chance to bring the dead back to life if the stars are right and the expensive materials are available. He can brew weak healing draughts, and has a chance to cure diseases. These skills are based upon combinations of alchemy and dark knowledge. His ability to succeed at one of these tasks is not guaranteed, and he expects payment up front whether his attempt is successful or not.

Kanndra Dark, Ulman's wife is a successful bounty hunter and spends most of her time away from Zelkor's Ferry. She also picks up various exotic herbs and ingredients on her travels, which Ulman can then try in his potions and nostrums.

Prices

Removing Poison: A character that has been poisoned within the last 24 hours may be purged of the poison. The procedure involves replacing the patient’s blood, using a quantity of goat’s blood as well as drawing some blood from other humans to include in the transfusion. Ulman requires payment of 800 gp to make the attempt.

It costs 2 gp per person (and 1 gp per animal) to be ferried across the water on Gutmark’s boat.

H. Gemcutter

People

Kalgor is a retired wanderer, a dwarf who happens to prefer living on the surface rather than underground. This may be related to the fact that his vision is not as acute as it is for most dwarves; he uses spectacles even in daylight, and can see no further than 10 ft. in the dark. His income mainly comes from occasional work as a gemcutter; rough gemstones found in the area usually make their way to his worktable eventually before they are sold upriver.

Prices

Kalgor appraises a gem for payment of 10% of its value (Kalgor is regarded as honest and accurate with his appraisals.)

He buys gems for 90% of value (the appraisal still costs 10%) At any given time, Kalgor has a few gems available for sale.

Kalgor can be hired to re-cut a gem to increase its value. He charges 10% of the gem’s initial value to make the attempt, and tells his customers up front that they run the risk of the gem being ruined.

Important Houserule:

I am eliminating some of the more basic magic items. (Weapons, armor, shield, cloaks of resistance, stat boosting items). Instead you will get bonuses every level to compensate for not getting these items. This will require a spot on your character sheet keeping a log of what you chose and when. The bonuses are from training and experience and not magical.

Every level you can choose from one of the following five categories (Melee, Ranged, Armor, Shield, Saves). You will get a +1 bonus to that category everytime it is chosen. You can choose any one of the five once every block of 4 levels (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, 17-20). So you cannot choose +1 to saves at 3rd and 4th level, but can choose them 4th and 5th level.) And yes this starts at 1st level

Every even level your character will receive an extra +1 to a stat over the normal rules. That means at 2nd you get to raise a stat +1, 4th a +2, 6th a +1, 8th a +2, etc) You cannot choose to raise the same stat twice in a row.

Weapons The bonus is an enhancement bonus but does not make your weapon magical. For that you need to find an item with a magical power on it (like flaming or keen) or cast a spell like magic weapon. It makes having these weapons useful for overcoming DR and having less chance to break. Masterwork weapons still give a +1 to hit if you haven’t chosen the weapon bonus and also has 1 additional point of hardness. (The extra point of hardness should be added to magic items).

Armor/Shields The bonus is an enchancement bonus but does not make your armor magical. For that you need to find an item with a magical power on it (like fortification or slick) or cast a spell like magic vestment. Finding magical armor makes the armor harder to destroy. Masterwork armor reduces armor check penalty by 1 (This includes magical armor)

Saves The bonus is a resistance bonus.

Ability Boost All boosts to a skill are considered enhancement bonuses and are from experience and training. For this game, enhancement bonuses stack up to a total of +6 maximum. So you could have boosted your strength up +2 and cast bull's strength for another +4 for a total of +6. But if you boost your strength up another point for +3, bull strength still only boosts to +6. That means that the top score for most races will be 26.

If by any chance the trading post comes by magical weapons or armor and puts them up for sale, the price of the weapon or armor for sale will be figured out as normal for the item like it had a +1 bonus on it. A Sword of Flaming will be priced as a +2 weapon.

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